OMPS/LP observations of Russian meteor aftermath effect on Earth’s atmosphere

Nick Gorkavyi, Science Systems and Applications, Inc D.F. Rault, GESTAR, Morgan State University

P.A. Newman, A.M. da Silva, NASA/GSFC

OMPS Science Team Meeting, June 6, 2013

Three points:

• Suomi satellite detected new stratospheric “skybelt” from meteor dust around the planet in the mid-stratosphere

• We can clearly see the Chelyabinsk bolide aftermath effect in OMPS/LP aerosol product (> 2 months). Observations corroborated with back trajectory analyses

• We can evaluate meteor cloud parameters: particle size, rate of descent, total mass of particulates within cloud

Meteor physical characteristics:• 60 feet in diameter, 10,000 metric tons, Velocity of 18.6 km/s• Exploded at 03:20 UTC (just after local sunrise), at altitude of 23.3 km with

energy release equivalent to more than 30 Hiroshima atomic weapons • On the ground, meteoritic debris scattered over large area, and recovered

fragments were found to be very small (typically sub-cm), bearing witness to intensity of air-burst explosion which pulverized the bolide during the 10 s duration atmospheric entry

• The recovered meteoritic material consists of ordinary LL5 chondrite

Meteor plume over Chelyabinsk on Feb 15th, 2013

View from North-WestT ~ 4 min after explosion

Large fraction of meteor dust transported upwards in air-burst mushroom cloud which rose quickly (~100 s) up to 33-35 km, above Earth’s Junge layer

23.3 km

Mesospheric part of plume (>50 km)

On February 15th, OMPS/LP detected the meteor cloud in stratosphere

NPP SUOMI

OMPS/LP

Meteor

Present talk: focus on meteor aftermath effect on atmosphere over ensuing 2 months: Feb 15th-Apr 15th

First detection of plume,Orbit 6752

Second detection of plume,Orbit 6753

Chelyabinsk

On February 15th, OMPS/LP detected the meteor cloud in stratosphere on two orbits:1. 3 h 35 min after meteor impact: near Novosibirsk, about 1100 km east of

Chelyabinsk: eastward plume drift velocity of ~80 m/s2. 5 h 16 min meteor impact: near Chelyabinsk

Mean Junge layer as measured by OMPS/LPFeb 8 – April 15, 2013

OMPS/LP observations above Junge layerWeek prior to meteor

Week 1 after meteor

Week 2

Scale x 35

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 7

Meteor day-by-day cloud evolution

February 16th

• Plume detected several times on succeeding orbits and observed to stretch over 150° of longitude

• Mean eastward velocity of ~35 m/s.

• The vertical wind shear (from meteorological data) at these levels is consistent with the observed plume stretching

high altitude dust (40 km) moving much faster (>60m/s) low altitude dust (30 km) moving much slower (~ 20 m/s)

Plume well above June layer Small Angstrom (Large particles) High plume above Junge small extinction relative to Junge

Meteor plume extinction is 10 times smaller than Junge layer but still detected by

limb viewing OMPS/LP

February 18th

• Plume was observed from North America to the middle of the Atlantic ocean

• Maximum plume density registered along the US/Canada border at altitudes of 36-37 km

February 19th

• 4 days after meteor impact the upper part of the meteor plume has circumnavigated the globe and returned over Chelyabinsk, 20000 km in 4 days: 200 km/h, 60 m/sec

February 20th

February 21st

February 22nd

February 23rd

February 25th

February 26th

• Meteoric dust plume has formed a quasi-continuous mid-latitude “skybelt” located a few kilometers above the Junge layer.

Skybelt settled on inside edge of polar vortex, as confirmed by the GEOS-5 model simulations

February 27th

February 28th

March 1st

March 2nd

March 4th

Larger Angstrom (Smaller particles) Lower plume above Junge small extinction relative to Junge

March 5th

March 6th

March 7th

March 8th

March 9th

March 10th

March 18th

March 19th

March 20th

March 21st

Larger Angstrom (Smaller particles) Lower plume above Junge small extinction relative to Junge

March 22nd

March 23rd

March 25th

March 26th

March 27th

March 28th

March 29th

March 30th

Larger Angstrom (Smaller particles) Lower plume above Junge small extinction relative to Junge

March 30, 2013

Meteor plume simulation with Goddard Trajectory Model (GTM)

16th

20th

18th• The advection of sample

parcels is traced using the wind / temperatures dataset from NASA’s MERRA reanalysis

• Simulations initialized on Feb 15th at Chelyabinsk in a 150 km cylinder extending from 33.5 to 43.5 km

• For each day, - Red for 43.5 km - Blue for 33.5 km

Chelyabinsk

Meteor plume simulation with GEOS-5

• 5 dust bins with radius at 0.06, 0.11, 0.22, 0.44, 0.89 μm

• Standard GEOS-5 processes: advection, diffusion, convection, dry/wet deposition, sedimentation

• Initial dust distribution: 100 tons between 30 and 40 km centered at Chelyabinsk

• A movie depicting time evolution of modeled plume

• Figure shows snapshots of modeled plume about a week after initialization

Dust AOD on Feb 21, 12.00 UTC

Dust AOD on Feb 23, 21.00 UTC

AOD

Time evolution of Meteor cloud (1)

Meteor skybelt has a vertical depth of about 5 km, a width of about 300-400 km, a density of about 1 particle per cc. Total particulate

mass within skybelt is estimated to be 40-50 metric tons.

Time evolution of Meteor cloud (2)

88 meters/ day - Sedimentation - Diabatic cooling

Particle size slowly decreasing

from 0.2 to 0.05 μm

Plume optical depth slowly decreasing

Plume slowly drifting

Northwards

Conclusion• The Chelyabinsk meteor event was ideal for assessing OMPS/LP potentials: - Large (60 feet diameter, 10000 tons) - Highly observed (landed over a city, highly photographed) - Easy to analyze composition (most of mass deposited onto snow) - ideal for OMPS/LP high Northern latitudes: low SSA, confined within polar vortex entry during daylight

• OMPS/LP was proven valuable to track the meteor plume in time / space• The models and stratospheric meteorological data assimilation allowed one to

predict the evolution of meteoric dust plumes, suggesting a great potential for the assimilation OMPS/LP aerosol retrievals in near real-time.

• The Earth is constantly impacted by meteors, and meteoric debris are known to contribute to high altitude atmospheric physics (such as condensation nuclei for stratospheric and mesospheric clouds). Further observations by OMPS/LP over its 5-year design lifetime will help in better understanding these effects.

• The Chelyabinsk meteor plume can be used as test case for study of variability of spectra, TH problem and upgrading retrieval algorithm for local events.